Ate Past: Food, History and Politics

Last month, on a Friday afternoon at 0 and 9th Streets, I thought I heard gunshots. Then I thought I heard sirens. Then I went outside, and saw neighbors looking over toward flashing police cars, and swarms of cops, so asked someone what happened.

He said, "somebody got hit."

I asked, "Hit, someone was hit?"

He said, "somebody got hit."

I wondered if someone had been hit by a car or in a fist fight. I asked another neighbor what happened.

He said, "someone was shot."

Oh.

Turned out, two people had been shot that Friday near the Giant Supermarket on 9th and O Street. I shop there nearly everday. I've been told it's actually pretty safe, and that violence there is generally targeted, gang-related and professional.

That said, I wish buying groceries nearby didn't involve calculated risks.

****

I live on O Street, between 9th and 10th Street NW, in Washington, DC's Shaw neighborhood. More precisely, I live in Naylor Court, which has its own distinct identity. I'm an architectural historian, a writer, an illustrator, and was recently a lobbyist. I think I'm still certified. I don't think it matters. Earlier this year, I made a decision to return to my roots after lobbying for nearly five years with grassroots interests for historic preservation.

I also like food. A lot. My mom was a terrible cook, so I learned how to work a kitchen at an early age. I started with grilled cheese around 1975 and moved on from there.

For six years, I was a freelance writer while working for preservation and history nonprofits in Seattle, which is an excellent, formative place for foodies. When I moved to DC in 2004, culture shock was acute, in part because I wore pantyhose on a regular basis after years of wearing jeans to work, and in part because of DC's food culture.

Seattle's Pike Place Market is iconic, historically, but it's also an inexpensive place to get fresh produce, meat, fish, and other basics in the middle of the workday. DC used to have that, and when the city lost its downtown market to its federal presence in 1930, many were peeved. But not enough.

*****

About a month ago, after the aforementioned shootings and years of consideration, I started researching the politics of food through building and neighborhood history. My first subject: the historic O Street Market, which is on the other side of Giant's parking lot. This posting serves as an introduction to a series of posts featuring what I've learned about that market and others in DC, including the history of street vendors, private markets, local farming, farm routes, and food politics generally.